MY HAIKUS--Kumo to hedatsu Clouds will separate Tomo ka ya kari no The two friends, after migrating Ikiwakare Wild goose's departure.Shiba no to ni Against the brushwood gate Cha o konoha kaku Dead tea leaves swirl Arashi kana In the stormy wind.Arare kiku ya The sound of hail - Kono mi wa moto no I am the same as before Furugashiwa Like that aging oak.
MY LIFE--One day in the spring of 1681 a banana tree was being planted alongside a modest hut in a rustic area of Edo, a city now known as Tokyo. It was a gift from a local resident to his teacher of poetry, who had moved into the hut several months earlier. The teacher, a man of thirty-six years of age, was delighted with the gift. He loved the banana plant because it was somewhat like him in the way it stood there. Its large leaves were soft and sensitive and were easily torn when gusty winds blew from the sea. Its flowers were small and unobtrusive; they looked lonesome, as if they knew they could bear no fruit in the cool climate of Japan. Its stalks were long and fresh- looking, yet they were of no practical use.The teacher lived all alone in the hut. On nights when he had no visitor, he would sit quietly and listen to the wind blowing through the banana leaves. The lonely atmosphere would deepen on rainy nights. Rainwater leaking through the roof dripped intermittently into a basin. To the ears of the poet sitting in the dimly lighted room, the sound made a strange harmony with the rustling of the banana leaves outside.